Thursday, August 18, 2011

Bike’s Round Booty Makes for a Smooth Ride

Even without the occasional shot to the squishy bits from potholes, the vibration from riding on rough roads alone will be enough to ruin a ride. The Tortola RoundTail aims to negate road quality with a frame design that reduces vibration 50x.

The Tortola RoundTail frame features a prominent circular rear end instead of the traditional twin triangles. This design allows the frame to better dissipate the force of an impact as the rear tire bottoms out by transferring the force into the a spiral rather than straight up—into your groin via the saddle. In addition, the composition of the fame—built from a special steel comprised of manganese, chrome, nickel, molybdenum and niobium— provides additional frame strength over other alloys. This spine-saving technology does come at a price, however, as the frame itself retails for $2000. [RoundTail via Inhabitat]